Assessing the long-term health of vegetarians and vegans and their risk of certain conditions and diseases

Researchers from the University of Oxford revealed that becoming a vegetarian or vegan has significant long-term health benefits. This finding, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, was based on the results of western studies involving a high portion of vegetarian participants.

Vegetarians are people who follow a diet devoid of any meat, poultry or fish. These people can be further classified into vegans who do not consume any animal products or lacto-ovo-vegetarians who eat dairy products and eggs.

Vegetarianism is a very common practice in countries like India where nearly 30 percent of the people follow this diet. However, it is generally uncommon in the U.S. where only 5 percent of the population are vegetarians and 2 percent are vegans.

Although studies have determined that a well-planned vegetarian diet can provide the nutrients needed by the body, many people are still worried about the potential long-term health effects of vegetarianism. This is because meat products are major sources of nutrients like vitamin B12 and D, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids.

In this study, the researchers evaluated the results of eight prospective studies involving more than 100,000 vegetarians and a total of almost 280,000 participants.

The results of their analysis showed that a vegetarian diet reduces a person’s risk of developing obesity, ischemic heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, hyperthyroidism, and eye cataracts. Meanwhile, stroke risk did not vary between vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Overall, the results of this study show that following a vegetarian or vegan diet has long-term health benefits, as shown by the reduced risk of certain diseases and medical conditions.